Micros Are Heard on Tax Simplification
May 18th, 2009 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: RegulationsEarlier this month, the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) was working Capitol Hill with a single, simple message: “Dear Congress, Please take it easy on the small business owner.” An excellent opportunity for that sort of thing presented itself when the House Small Business Committee, Subcommittee on Finance and Tax, held its first hearing of the 111th Congress, entitled “Tax Code Complexities for Small Business.” The hearing was a real pleasure to watch, which is pretty rare all by itself. When the topic of tax simplification comes up, it is pretty difficult to get through the conversation without discussing some pretty microbusiness-specific tax issues and that was certainly the case during this hearing.
Some of the specifics detailed by witnesses (most notably by Keith Hall, Brilliant Tax Guy for the NASE) included support for plain language communications from the government, a standardized home office deduction, deductibility of health insurance premiums as a regular business expense for sole proprietors, and clarification of the status of independent contractors. Other witnesses urged Congress to lesson the record keeping burdens placed on small businesses, update arcane, outdated and/or unfair tax provisions, and include a National Summit on Small Business for Economic Recovery in 2010 as a part of the upcoming SBA reauthroization legislation.
